A scary trade deadline looms

 Despite what you may have heard about the Twins, they are still in a close race for the American League Central. They haven't been good, and are sitting just below .500 on the season. With the rotation they are trotting out, and some big money locked up in the lineup, the fact that they have a better than 50/50 shot at the post season meants that, without a doubt, at the end of the month, they will be one of the deadline buyers.

Yikes. 

If you look at the scale of trades the current organization has made, deadline sell offs would be #1 in their skill set (think of Joe Ryan and Jhoan Duran), while offseason deals would be number two. Deadline acquisitions have been a painful exercise of "be careful what you wish for". So often, Twins fans, myself included, have begged for the Twins to be active at the deadline, to supplement runs to the playoffs. It's impossible to understate how badly this has imploded.

This year, as I have noted, the problem is with the areas they need to supplement. Not only do we have a fairly tragic recent history with deadline deals, but the Twins are in a position to bolster a unit that might as well improve if they can get improved production from prospects that the Twins have been waiting along for some time.

The outfield is the greatest weakness right now for the Twins, but the players I think most fans would like to see on the roster from St. Paul are Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner. Do you trust young players to revive a moribund offense? Do you want the team to expend the resources it would take to add a premium bat, knowing the recent history of the front office? Especially if that acquisition means less time for Larnach or Wallner or any other youngster trying to make their way into the league?

The front office has not been afraid to make moves to update the roster, and they have been conscious about areas that need to be addressed. What will they decide needs to be addressed, and what is the best way to do it? The track record tells us that the Twins will make moves that make a ton of sense, and patch holes in an efficient and thoughtful way. The same track record tells us that the move will almost immediately blow up in the Twins' face.